Deadly Trench Town conflict won’t end as sons vow vengeance if their mothers are killed

Women living on Fourth Street in Trench Town, Kingston, who allege that they have been marked for death by gunmen engaged in a gang feud running for more than a year, say they are not only fearful about the threats to their lives, but that the conflict will not end as their sons and other male relatives have vowed vengeance if they are killed.

Mi son look pon mi and tell mi say, 'Mommy, if dem kill yuh, mi a go tek up gun.' My 17-year-old look pon mi and tell mi dat,” one mother told the Scoop Jamaica yesterday.

Another mother, who said her name is reported to head the list of targeted individuals, speculated that the conflict would not end since her male relatives have vowed to take revenge if she is killed.

“My name deh a di top a di list fi dead. Mi tell di police dem say if mi dead, mi have nephew and son who say dem a go murder dem back,” she said.

The women, who asked not to be named, expressed frustration about the spate of reprisal shootings in the community that have claimed the lives of two residents since the start of the year.

“A years now dah war yah a gwaan. Mi tired a dis now,” cried a mother of two, who said she, too, was on a death list.

She said that men from warring gangs living at opposite ends of Fourth Street have been engaged in tit-for-tat killings since last year, and that her name is now on a list of people being targeted in a planned retaliation for the shooting death of a woman in the community on Saturday.

Senior superintendent of police in charge of the Kingston Western Police Division Michael Phipps told the Scoop that the gangs have been at war for more than a year.

“The gang feud started from around 2019, and the information is that it started as a result of a missing firearm. [There has been] an intensification of the conflict in recent times between two main gangs in the space, the Socks gang and another which is known as the Brooklyn gang.

We have information that these persons are hell-bent on creating problems within the space, and as such we have embarked on a curfew which started on [January 7], and we have since asked that it be extended.

The gang feud has also taken its toll on business activities in the community which attracts visitors to the world-famous Culture Yard, where reggae legend Bob Marley once lived.

“You can't have visitors going there in peace. The violence has impacted those activities in the community,” Phipps said.

A 6:00 pm curfew, which started in the community last Thursday, is scheduled to end 7:00 pm today.